Bantock

This is a very unusual surname. Recorded in a number of forms including Bantick, Bantock, Bentick, Bentinck and Benting, as well as possibly Banting, Bunten, Bontein, Bontne, and Bunting, in most spellings it is regarded as English, but is almost certainly of medieval Dutch or Flemish origins, of which there are at least two. The first is from the word 'bontyng', which in ancient times described a small bird like a sparrow, and hence was given as a nickname to somebody who was small and rotund, or possibly given the robust humour of the period, the complete reverse. The derivation of bontyng is from a pre 7th century Dutch-German element 'bunz', meaning 'little barrel'. This word is recorded in ancient times as the first component of the English place name Buntingford, a village in Hertfordshire. The second possible origin is from the Dutch personal name Bent, a short form of Benedict, to which was added the suffix '-ing or -inck' meaning people, and hence describing the Benting or Bentinck families. William Bentinck, the 1st Earl of Portland, was friend and advisor to William of Orange in 1688. A third possible option for some nameholders is that it may be locational from some now 'lost' medieval place called 'Beonet-ock' or similar, meaning the place of the bent grass, but of this we have no proof at all. Early examples of the surname recording taken from ancient rolls and registers in England include: John Buntying in the Hundred rolls of the county of Sussex in the year 1273, Elizabeth Bantick who married Richard Buckham at St Dunstans in the East, Stepney, on August 7th 1618, and Hew Bantock, who married Anne Browne at St Bartholomews the Less, in the city of London, on December 26th 1656. This was during the 'reign' of Oliver Cromwell (1650 - 1658).